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Martin
Martin
CK5
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The Story Of A Cummins Suburban (Lots Of Pics)
- Thread starter mosesburb
- Start date
That would not surprise me at all...
Very well so far. This is last year and they are still on the truck. I just had them rebalanced recently (after this year's trip) and they ride great. I wish I would have had the time to do it before we went this year.
Yay for more pictures!
@mosesburb, what is the new item on the roof of the truck? A rack? I don't remember such.
It's all explained in the first sentence of this post. Yeah, it's a rack. I didn't want one, but I got sold on the idea. The whole reason for the rack will be shown later in the trip, but not in its final incarnation. It's done now, but we're still in last year at this point.
I'll try. No guarantees man.
So the next morning we pack up and load our stuff back into the truck and head north out of the park. We decided to head up to Zion and see the sights.
Shortly after entering we saw a gigantic petrified sand dune:
A neat little tunnel in the sandstone:
I like the red pavement. It doesn't detract from the scenery surrounding it.
Further down the road is a very cool, long tunnel. It has windows along the way. Once upon a time you could stop and look out the windows, but not anymore. It is quite difficult to take pictures out he windows while moving through a dark tunnel at speed, but I got a couple: (this is running east to west)
Next one:
Next:
This is looking back toward the tunnel and the hole in the wall is the second window I think:
Great views are everywhere:
So, the majority of the sights to see are in Zion Canyon. Unfortunately, the popularity of the park creates a problem with vehicular traffic, so all personal vehicles are banned from traveling up the canyon. In lieu of personal vehicles, a shuttle is offered. The shuttle runs very frequently so you don't wait long to catch one when you are done at a particular stop. The one drawback of the shuttle is the vehicles used have very visually restrictive interiors. There is so much to see, but the bus itself blocks a bunch of the scenery. You can't roll down the window and stick your head out either. Kind of a drag. There are many stops along the way to get out and explore.
Generic scenery:
Generic scenery:
This one is cool. Water flows through the porous sandstone and when it hits an impermeable layer, it will oftentimes end up flowing out of the side of a vertical wall like this:
You can hike up to it and actually go behind the curtain of water:
It is almost impossible to see in the pic this size, but there is a climber just below the top of the face. The picture does no justice to the height of the cliff:
Blah, blah:
Blah, blah, beautiful scenery, blah, blah:
So we rode the shuttle back to the truck and decided to check out another entrance, Kolob Canyon, of Zion over on the west side of Dixie Mountain. This requires leaving the park and travelling quite a ways over near Cedar City.
They have different speed limits in Utah:
So we did:
It was getting late, so we decided to get a room in Cedar City and head into Kolob the next morning.
Shortly after entering we saw a gigantic petrified sand dune:
A neat little tunnel in the sandstone:
I like the red pavement. It doesn't detract from the scenery surrounding it.
Further down the road is a very cool, long tunnel. It has windows along the way. Once upon a time you could stop and look out the windows, but not anymore. It is quite difficult to take pictures out he windows while moving through a dark tunnel at speed, but I got a couple: (this is running east to west)
Next one:
Next:
This is looking back toward the tunnel and the hole in the wall is the second window I think:
Great views are everywhere:
So, the majority of the sights to see are in Zion Canyon. Unfortunately, the popularity of the park creates a problem with vehicular traffic, so all personal vehicles are banned from traveling up the canyon. In lieu of personal vehicles, a shuttle is offered. The shuttle runs very frequently so you don't wait long to catch one when you are done at a particular stop. The one drawback of the shuttle is the vehicles used have very visually restrictive interiors. There is so much to see, but the bus itself blocks a bunch of the scenery. You can't roll down the window and stick your head out either. Kind of a drag. There are many stops along the way to get out and explore.
Generic scenery:
Generic scenery:
This one is cool. Water flows through the porous sandstone and when it hits an impermeable layer, it will oftentimes end up flowing out of the side of a vertical wall like this:
You can hike up to it and actually go behind the curtain of water:
It is almost impossible to see in the pic this size, but there is a climber just below the top of the face. The picture does no justice to the height of the cliff:
Blah, blah:
Blah, blah, beautiful scenery, blah, blah:
So we rode the shuttle back to the truck and decided to check out another entrance, Kolob Canyon, of Zion over on the west side of Dixie Mountain. This requires leaving the park and travelling quite a ways over near Cedar City.
They have different speed limits in Utah:
So we did:
It was getting late, so we decided to get a room in Cedar City and head into Kolob the next morning.
Cool trip, nice pictures, blah blah... 
I look forward to seeing your crater lake pictures.
I look forward to seeing your crater lake pictures.
I love that last pic of your speedometer. It says a lot about the work you have invested in your truck. For an old war horse truck to sit comfy at 80...not to mention the Cummins conversion...well done Sir!
and the pics are cool too!
and the pics are cool too!
So we rode the shuttle back to the truck and decided to check out another entrance, Kolob Canyon, of Zion over on the west side of Dixie Mountain. This requires leaving the park and travelling quite a ways over near Cedar City.
They have different speed limits in Utah:
So we did:
It was getting late, so we decided to get a room in Cedar City and head into Kolob the next morning.
Cool trip, nice pictures, blah blah...
I look forward to seeing your crater lake pictures.
Thanks!! Yeah, you're going to have to wait a bit for those pics....
I love that last pic of your speedometer. It says a lot about the work you have invested in your truck. For an old war horse truck to sit comfy at 80...not to mention the Cummins conversion...well done Sir!
and the pics are cool too!
Thanks and thanks!! On our trip this year, the speedometer read that for almost eight hours straight in a day. But I am getting ahead of myself here.....
Ok, so the next day we got up and headed to a store in Cedar City to buy a jacket for me. We quickly found out that it is no easy task in summer to buy a jacket. Most normal stores do not stock jackets in summer for some reason. After finally locating one we headed back down the road to Kolob Canyons of Zion National Park. This is a neat area that if time permits, I highly recommend checking out.
We were quickly greeted with great views and the familiar red asphalt:
Gratuitous truck pic:
It's not a long drive into the park before you get to the end of the road and beginning of the trails:
We weren't set up for hiking this day, so we decided to mark it for next time and continue on. We headed back up the road and headed up into Dixie Mountain. Toward the top of the 13% grade we came upon Brian Head. I'm guessing it is a ski resort judging by all of the hotels and ski lifts..
After passing through Brian Head, i found a trail leading off the road to what would be the top of a mountain. It looked like there should be some great views, so off we went. Unfortunately, we were there too early in the summer and got thwarted by snow:
11,019' in June
Shortly after getting back on the road we came upon Cedar Breaks National Monument. There were some great views to be had:
Another area:
Very neat stuff.
Yet another gratuitous truck pic:
Heading down the east side of Dixie Mountain, while looking for an area to camp, we came across a gigantic pile of volcanic lava flow. The pic does no justice to how much volume of this stuff is here:
We didn't find anywhere to camp that we liked. Mostly because it was too early in the day to be stopping to set up camp, so we kept heading down the road. We went through Panguitch on 89 and got onto 12 heading toward Bryce Canyon National Park. We were actively seeking a camp location along the way. We had to stop and look at the scenery along the way though:
With a truck that kind of matches the color of the scenery:
Another arch/tunnel:
We passed a really neat campground that had some nice bike trails in it. While we don't normally stay in campgrounds, we did scoop the loop looking for any open spots. We didn't find any and continued down the road. I noticed that the area north of the road was labeled as BLM land on the map so if we could find a trail, we should be able to find somewhere to set up camp. Before long we did and after heading back into the hills for a couple/few miles we found our address for the night. It was a nice secluded spot. We got set up and I got my boy's bike down so he could burn off some energy before we had dinner. While getting everything in order it started raining a bit. Now comes a quick non-complete explanation of the roof rack and its purpose. An awning!! A self supporting, no poles needed, no strings necessary awning. Well, in this case an awning structure with a tarp covering. The awning material was supposed to be finished before our trip, but didn't actually get done. I had grabbed a HF tarp and some cheap paracord and by combining the structure I made and the HF components, we had a nice dry area to eat our dinner:
The real awning is yet to come, so much like me, you will have to wait to see just how awesome it turned out!!
We were quickly greeted with great views and the familiar red asphalt:
Gratuitous truck pic:
It's not a long drive into the park before you get to the end of the road and beginning of the trails:
We weren't set up for hiking this day, so we decided to mark it for next time and continue on. We headed back up the road and headed up into Dixie Mountain. Toward the top of the 13% grade we came upon Brian Head. I'm guessing it is a ski resort judging by all of the hotels and ski lifts..
After passing through Brian Head, i found a trail leading off the road to what would be the top of a mountain. It looked like there should be some great views, so off we went. Unfortunately, we were there too early in the summer and got thwarted by snow:
11,019' in June
Shortly after getting back on the road we came upon Cedar Breaks National Monument. There were some great views to be had:
Another area:
Very neat stuff.
Yet another gratuitous truck pic:
Heading down the east side of Dixie Mountain, while looking for an area to camp, we came across a gigantic pile of volcanic lava flow. The pic does no justice to how much volume of this stuff is here:
We didn't find anywhere to camp that we liked. Mostly because it was too early in the day to be stopping to set up camp, so we kept heading down the road. We went through Panguitch on 89 and got onto 12 heading toward Bryce Canyon National Park. We were actively seeking a camp location along the way. We had to stop and look at the scenery along the way though:
With a truck that kind of matches the color of the scenery:
Another arch/tunnel:
We passed a really neat campground that had some nice bike trails in it. While we don't normally stay in campgrounds, we did scoop the loop looking for any open spots. We didn't find any and continued down the road. I noticed that the area north of the road was labeled as BLM land on the map so if we could find a trail, we should be able to find somewhere to set up camp. Before long we did and after heading back into the hills for a couple/few miles we found our address for the night. It was a nice secluded spot. We got set up and I got my boy's bike down so he could burn off some energy before we had dinner. While getting everything in order it started raining a bit. Now comes a quick non-complete explanation of the roof rack and its purpose. An awning!! A self supporting, no poles needed, no strings necessary awning. Well, in this case an awning structure with a tarp covering. The awning material was supposed to be finished before our trip, but didn't actually get done. I had grabbed a HF tarp and some cheap paracord and by combining the structure I made and the HF components, we had a nice dry area to eat our dinner:
The real awning is yet to come, so much like me, you will have to wait to see just how awesome it turned out!!
I like the awning. How much does it sway when the wind picks up?
I used to live down in that area. Always loved the view of Cedar Breaks.
Awning looks awesome! Cool idea.
Awning looks awesome! Cool idea.
Thanks. Don't know. Haven't had it deployed in the wind yet.
Thanks. This is temporary hokey. The finished product is super cool!! I admit I haven't had a chance to really use it yet though... Hopefully by the time I post it up, I'll actually have some time on it.
Thanks Dave, glad you like it!!
So we got up the next morning, packed up camp, rolled up the makeshift awning and headed down the road toward Bryce Canyon National Park. Having camped just down the road from it, we didn't have far to go. We stopped at the guard shack and asked the ranger lady what were the sights to see. She asked if we were hiking and I kind of giggled a bit and said not today. She recommended stopping at all of the view areas along the way. Sounds good and we're off. Bryce Canyon NP is set up as an out and back, so I decided to head all the way down to the end and stop at all the points on the way back.
Misery and disappointment sets in right about now.....
For all of you that have been following along over the years, you may remember my epic trip to Glacier National Park when we waited for good weather and ended up going through the park in the rain and fog and saw almost nothing that we went to see. Why would I bring this up right now?? Well, similarities. Ridiculous similarities. Ugh. Really?!? Yes, really:
Photographing water vapor in the air is very challenging for me. The truck is visible in the picture, but was invisible in person from this distance. This wasn't fog. This was the clouds. FFS, what is it with us and National Parks??
We can't see jack here. Anywhere. Well, let's head back and see if we can see anything on the way back out.
Nope:
We can see a little bit here. Looks kind of creepy, but cool at the same time:
So all of the stops along the way are obscured by water vapor. We get back toward the entrance area and there are a couple different view points that are a mile or so off the main road. We are all pretty bummed at this point, so I ask it we are interested in traveling further to be disappointed. We all agreed that we should at least go through the motions, so off we go for more disappointment, just further off the main road. Well, maybe we are having a change of luck??
The clouds were rolling around through the area so quickly I had to be quick on the shutter to get some good pics. Not saying these are good, but they are better than the "ghost images" I had been getting at every stop prior (notice the gray layer at the top of the pic??).
Gotta be quick:
At the last stop I had the best luck. This place is just visual overload:
Our last stop netted the best views and literally saved the day:
So we went down and checked out the lodge. While roaming through the gift shop my wife accidentally swiped a shirt for me. She had thrown it over her shoulder while we were looking around and when I was paying for the stuff, she forgot to put it on the counter. It wasn't realized until we got in the truck. It was actually a rather funny incident. I took the shirt back in and explained the situation that I needed to pay for this shirt. Traveling often makes for some fun stories LOL. On our way out of the lodge, effectively being a history loving gear head on vacation, I found an old service station that was built in 1947 and last used sometime in the 80's (I think). It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995. It had some really cool architecture and a few artifacts still inside.
A different angle:
Through the glass:
So we headed out and stopped at a restaurant outside of the park for a late lunch. We spotted a parking spot and jumped on it. No sooner were we out of the truck and some old boy came up to us telling me there is a sign over there (a tiny, very easily missed sign) saying this is for compact vehicles only and we can't park here. I only drive large vehicles and had the truck parked in a professional manner that obstructed nothing, but this parking monitor's authority was going to be respected. You're really going to make me move?? Oh yeah, I HAD to move. All the way across the lot. So we went in and had lunch. While we were in there the sky absolutely opened up. Deluge. Insane amount of water. We had to wait it out because we were parked on the other side of the lot now. It finally let up and we headed down the road to Tropic where we got a room and had to do some laundry. We found out that the only public laundry facilities were all the way back across town. So we gathered up our stuff and walked all the way back across town (couple hundred yards maybe??). Met a cool guy who normally travels the area on a dual sport bike, but was traveling with his wife and dog, so they were in their Jeep. Had a nice visit with the while our clothes were cleaning. He had all kinds of information on neat trails and roads in southern Utah. Unfortunately everything just got rained on.... This is going to be an issue in the near future....
Misery and disappointment sets in right about now.....
For all of you that have been following along over the years, you may remember my epic trip to Glacier National Park when we waited for good weather and ended up going through the park in the rain and fog and saw almost nothing that we went to see. Why would I bring this up right now?? Well, similarities. Ridiculous similarities. Ugh. Really?!? Yes, really:
Photographing water vapor in the air is very challenging for me. The truck is visible in the picture, but was invisible in person from this distance. This wasn't fog. This was the clouds. FFS, what is it with us and National Parks??
We can't see jack here. Anywhere. Well, let's head back and see if we can see anything on the way back out.
Nope:
We can see a little bit here. Looks kind of creepy, but cool at the same time:
So all of the stops along the way are obscured by water vapor. We get back toward the entrance area and there are a couple different view points that are a mile or so off the main road. We are all pretty bummed at this point, so I ask it we are interested in traveling further to be disappointed. We all agreed that we should at least go through the motions, so off we go for more disappointment, just further off the main road. Well, maybe we are having a change of luck??
The clouds were rolling around through the area so quickly I had to be quick on the shutter to get some good pics. Not saying these are good, but they are better than the "ghost images" I had been getting at every stop prior (notice the gray layer at the top of the pic??).
Gotta be quick:
At the last stop I had the best luck. This place is just visual overload:
Our last stop netted the best views and literally saved the day:
So we went down and checked out the lodge. While roaming through the gift shop my wife accidentally swiped a shirt for me. She had thrown it over her shoulder while we were looking around and when I was paying for the stuff, she forgot to put it on the counter. It wasn't realized until we got in the truck. It was actually a rather funny incident. I took the shirt back in and explained the situation that I needed to pay for this shirt. Traveling often makes for some fun stories LOL. On our way out of the lodge, effectively being a history loving gear head on vacation, I found an old service station that was built in 1947 and last used sometime in the 80's (I think). It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995. It had some really cool architecture and a few artifacts still inside.
A different angle:
Through the glass:
So we headed out and stopped at a restaurant outside of the park for a late lunch. We spotted a parking spot and jumped on it. No sooner were we out of the truck and some old boy came up to us telling me there is a sign over there (a tiny, very easily missed sign) saying this is for compact vehicles only and we can't park here. I only drive large vehicles and had the truck parked in a professional manner that obstructed nothing, but this parking monitor's authority was going to be respected. You're really going to make me move?? Oh yeah, I HAD to move. All the way across the lot. So we went in and had lunch. While we were in there the sky absolutely opened up. Deluge. Insane amount of water. We had to wait it out because we were parked on the other side of the lot now. It finally let up and we headed down the road to Tropic where we got a room and had to do some laundry. We found out that the only public laundry facilities were all the way back across town. So we gathered up our stuff and walked all the way back across town (couple hundred yards maybe??). Met a cool guy who normally travels the area on a dual sport bike, but was traveling with his wife and dog, so they were in their Jeep. Had a nice visit with the while our clothes were cleaning. He had all kinds of information on neat trails and roads in southern Utah. Unfortunately everything just got rained on.... This is going to be an issue in the near future....
was the parking monitor driving a pious???
Probably a segway...
Nah, cowboy boots and a cowboy hat. The long arm of the law. Actually, he was kind of short. Anyway, after we re-parked and were walking back across the lot, he came up to me and wanted to start chatting about the truck. I'm thinking, really?? You pull that and now you want to chat?? I'm normally enjoy a quick chat with strangers (about the truck usually), but I had to draw the line that day....
Seriously cool pics Moses....spectacular shots and great timing with the clouds/fog rolling through. this one is off the chart cool!
and just for the record, I steal gas not shirts!
and just for the record, I steal gas not shirts!
Wow spectacular as always, and that old shop looks as though you wouldn't know what era your in fro, the looks of your burb in the pic, that coulda been 1976 or something.. Very cool, I love old buildings like that. Cool trip.
Thanks Dave!! The pictures from this trip have been difficult to whittle down to a reasonable amount to upload. I took bazillions (yes, plural) on this trip. Many more to come. Gas, eh?? She hasn't moved up to that yet...LOL
Thanks!! Yeah, the one pic that I took from across the road, I was trying to lessen the visual impact of the jersey barriers and highlight the appearance of the truck in an old service station. I sometimes wonder if, in its previous life, the truck has already been to some of the places we take it.
That's actually a really interesting thought...
